I will miss the association with the players and coaches. It has been a great ride.
— Jack Ramsay
You didn't hear anything about 'Celtic Pride' when they had Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe and they were only winning 32 games a year.
I went through my entire athletic life as a basketball player with only minimal physical setbacks, the worst being a couple of brain concussions, one in a college game in 1948, the other in 1954 while playing in the Eastern League, from which I recovered without permanent damage.
During my 11-year coaching tenure, Saint Joseph's won or tied for the Big Five championship seven times, went to 10 postseason tournaments - including seven NCAA appearances - and reached the Final Four in 1961.
If you make a wrong move with explosives, it could be deadly. If you're there when they blow up the beach, you get blown up, too. So you need to get your job done correctly... then pull the fuse with enough lag time for you to clear the area completely and get picked up by the small boats.
I wanted to become a college coach. I got game films of all the good college coaches - Pete Newell at California, Eddie Donovan with St. Bonaventure, Ken Loeffler at LaSalle.
I was playing sports all the time, and my parents, Anne and John, encouraged me to play in grade school and high school.
There was great comraderie among players and coaches. We enjoyed the time we were together... road trips were fun. I don't know that there was one moment that stood out among all the good times we had.
I've been blessed. I've had a great life and am continuing to have one.
Just as an athlete must exercise his body to be a winner, a leader must exercise his position of authority. If he doesn't, he loses that authority.
The best players I have seen and known have confidence in their teammates. They know that basketball's not a one-man game. That confidence brings out the best in everybody, because it's contagious.
Cancer is the ugliest, scariest, most dreaded word in the English language. My credentials for saying so? Head-to-head, firsthand close encounters with different versions of the fiendish devil.
In 1955-56, Saint Joseph's won the first Big Five championship, compiled a 23-6 overall record, and entered its first postseason competition ever - the National Invitation Tournament - finishing third. That season's success seemed to vault St. Joe's into the national collegiate basketball scene, and it has been there since.
I learned how important physical conditioning is. I learned how to focus on an objective in spite of all kinds of hazards. I learned how to deal with stress, too.
I got interested in coaching while I played at St. Joseph's. Because we played a national schedule, we played teams coached by Nat Holman, Joe Lapchick, Hank Iba, and others. I could see the impact the coach had on their teams, and I thought, 'That's a pretty good thing to do.'
It made the most sense for us to select Sam Bowie. It was almost a no-brainer.
I had a sense when I took the job that the 1976-77 Trail Blazers could be very good. We had made a lot of positive roster changes, but it wasn't until I had the team in training camp that I realized that this team could be special. Midway through that season, I felt we had a chance to win it all.
I don't think there's ever been a team that ever scored more layups than that Blazers team.
Teams that play together beat those teams with superior players who play more as individuals.
At Mass General in January 2007, Dr. Loeffler's team attached a ring-shaped metal frame to my head with four pins. Then I went to the radiation center, where they strapped me to the treatment table and secured the head frame so that I couldn't move.
Saint Joseph's still is among the smaller-enrollment institutions with a big-time basketball program. The Jesuits still offer the same high-quality education. St. Joe's students and alumni are as supportive as ever, and their spirit is unquenchable.
The Big Five is a competition played in the University of Pennsylvania's Palestra among five Philadelphia-area Division I schools: Saint Joseph's, La Salle, Penn, Temple, and Villanova. 'The Big Five' was immensely popular, and rivalries quickly grew to intense proportions.
I want to stay alive. Yeah, I want to stay alive. I think that's the main thing. If there's a chance I can live longer, I want to do it.
My mother was very strong on me to go to college. No one had ever been to college, including my parents.
I'm very fortunate to have gotten past the cancer problem.
My favorite moment was in Game 6 when Bill Walton tapped a missed Sixers shot toward the backcourt and Johnny Davis ran it down as the clock expired. We were NBA champions!
